About us
OUR STORY
Our founder, Abbey Piazza, realized the world would be a better place if more people had settled nervous systems. She created Piazza Rosa to help people—those also making the world better—find ease in their day-to-day life, build capacity to navigate conflict, and increase their self-agency.
She believes that when we have more choice and control over our minds and bodies, we have more space for imagination and creativity. This space is essential for not only confronting the world's challenges but also realizing new and innovative systems and solutions.
We help changemakers build capacity
Vision
Piazza Rosa transforms the way changemakers approach their work and lives by centering and prioritizing people and their well-being. We have the power to create and reimagine new systems of healing, and through this, we subvert dominant systems of oppression rather than reinforce them.
Mission
Piazza Rosa resources changemakers with nervous system education, stress management, and leadership training so they are resilient and sustainable in their work and can build their capacity to dream and embody new futures.
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
Hi there! I’m Abbey.
I’ve had the honour of working alongside activists, campaigners and organizers for over six years. I have extensive experience as a community organizer, and most recently worked at an advocacy software company coaching progressive organizations how to reach and influence decision-makers online. Right now, I am training to be a Resilience Toolkit Facilitator. The Resilience Toolkit is a stress management modality that provides accessible evidence-based stress reduction practices.
In my spare time, you’ll find me swimming in the ocean on unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (on what we now call Vancouver, Canada), visiting my grandparents, or eating any combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
Lineage
Piazza Rosa is informed and influenced by my ancestors. I am a white woman with Italian (Sicilian), Welsh, Mexican, Irish, Alsatian Jewish, German, and Swiss ancestry.
My work does not exist in a vacuum. I am a life-long student of many somatic, leadership, ancestral and anti-racism practitioners. I believe it is imperative to acknowledge the lineage of my work and thank my current and past teachers.
Somatic practitioners
Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands
Prentis Hemphill, The Embodiment Institute
Ancestral work
Marybeth Bonfiglio’s course, Blood and Belonging
Lisa Fazio, The Root Circle
Personal anti-racism
Layla Saad’s book, Me and White Supremacy
Michelle Cassandra Johnson & Kerri Kelly's course, Race & Resilience
Movement work & facilitation
adrienne maree brown’s course, Radical Permission, and her books on Emergent Strategy, Holding Change
Sonya Renee Taylor’s course, Radical Permission, and book The Body is Not an Apology
Indigenous food sovereignty and solidarity
Lori Synder, Métis Herbalist & Educator
Laura Cisneros, a conscious dreamer from the Caribbean Sea
Vancouver Urban Food Forest, organization dedicated to just food systems, Indigenous food sovereignty and the preservation and propagation of traditional cultural foodways
Credentials
Resilience Toolkit Facilitator (in progress)
Lumos Transforms, with founder and creator Nkem Ndefo
Resilience Toolkit Certification Program (18 weeks) gives Facilitators a deep, embodied understanding of stress and trauma physiology in a groundbreaking framework for building inner resources and creating meaningful change.
Embodied Activism Certification
The Embody Lab with Farzana Khan, Nkem Ndefo and Dr. Rae Johnson
Drawing on somatics, neuroscience, critical social theory, and trauma-informed anti-oppressive education, participants learn practical strategies for interrogating and transforming the political realities of our everyday lives using the felt experience of our individual and collective bodies as the ground of our social justice work.
Mental Health First Aid Standard
Mental Health Commission of Canada
Mental Health First Aid is the help provided to a person developing a mental health problem, experiencing the worsening of an existing mental health problem, or in a mental health crisis. Just like physical first aid is provided until medical treatment can be obtained, MHFA is given until appropriate support is found or until the crisis is resolved.